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Lutwidge Writings
The Red Pawn's Forged Letter to Celeste May 23, 1958 My dear Celeste, Pleased to read in the papers that you have, against all odds, survived your quixotic expedition. I owe you some small apology for my role in pointing you towards the peaks; a more incisive (Or Only Lucky) mind may have detected the falseness of the spoor. But the ambition of your quest and the volume of your voice distracted the Interferers: and thus this Obscurer Of Labyrinths has been free to pursue the secret of the Bellman's Chart. As you climbed the heights, I sought deeper; and in the end, like the Baker, I will surely vanish. Since I failed to join your Himalayan party, you numbered only eight: a figure, I daresay, of ominous portent. Your Agony is regrettable, but it is a requisite ancillary of the Eighth Fit. You consort with the lamas, and I'll take the sharks — For the Yeti avoids the blue sea. We poor deranged seekers are out hunting Snarks: but this Snark is a Boojum, you see. Soon to be gone like old "Thingumbob," wish you well: O.O.L. (which is me?) Letter to Ryan 1 April 17, 1952 Warden Yarn Co. is scribbled out numbers Park Ave. New York, NY To Whom It May Concern: After having made numerous previous inquiries by telephone, and receiving no adequate response, apparently I have to spell it out in writing. My organization accepted a contract to provide construction materials and other supplies for your unspecified project in the North Atlantic. We cheerfully agreed to some most peculiar conditions regarding confidentiality and consented to form partnerships with your organization. In exchange, we were promised long-term contracts, as well as control and, eventually, full ownership of several lucrative New York real estate properties. We are most dismayed to discover that our contracts have been cut off in recent months without valid explanation. Raw materials, purchased upfront by our organization, rust and rot at our docks as we await contact regarding delivery. We find ourselves most vexed by this utter lack of response; not in the least because we have exposed ourselves to undue risk in the implementation of your particular demands. We have grown increasingly suspicious that your organization has used ours as a "shield" to obfuscate your actual purposes. Perhaps your intent is to prevent the government from ascertaining the true nature of your unspecified project in the North Atlantic (op. cit., Q.E.D). We do not intend, as the popular parlance has it, to be left "holding the bag." We fully expect you to come through in your obligations; or failing that, to offer us a sizable cash settlement to compensate us for this ongoing frustration. With increasing pique, O.O.L Orrin Oscar Lutwidge Letter to Ryan 2 June 22, 1954 Page 2 (of 2) IN SHORT, Mr. R. (if that IS WHO YOU ARE). I have deduced who you are and what you are up to. Others will, soon - all too soon. Despite your best efforts - a trail remains. It is only a matter of connecting the dots. If you would like to KEEP your secret. I would advise that you contact me. Others are already finding the clues — putting the pieces together. ..This irksome French heiress and various agencies of the United States gov't. are moving in closer. Inch by inch, they encroach upon the center of the secret. It is my choice now. I could assist them - or I could cast chimerical glamours to lead them astray. (I have already taken it upon myself to destroy hard evidence of the city's existence and to introduce false evidence to confound & confuse these unworthies.) It is my understanding that you sought to gather the brightest and the best under your banner: yet you have left this very brightest mind alone in the shadows. ..I advise you. kind sir: test not my patience. You should reward your faithful servant, lest you taste his wrath. ..I await the coordinates of RAPTURE. ..............................With mounting impatience: ....................................O.O.L. RØd Killian Quain's Journal Page 1: To square the circle is a tangle yet a problem more easily subsumed than to find a triangle within the triangle Ye be lost unless ye find it and ye find it, ye be DOOMED Here there be MONSTERS Page 2: Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...the pool of tears..." In that sea of wreckage gleams the golden eye that leads the bold to -RAPTURE- and the rest to merely DIE ' Page 3': Down the RabbiTHole and what Orrin found there Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...Down down down. Would the fall never come to an end? 'I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. 'I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think-'..." "'...-yes, that's about the right distance-But then i wonder what Latitude and Longitude I've got to?...'" (Arrow pointing to the passage) Wouldn't you like to know? Such nice grand words to say Page 4: Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...'Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!'..." Always late..... too late 1959 and the party's almost over! (picture of Rapture masquerade ball with white rabbit mask) What does the White Rabbit know? Should auld acquaintance be forgot? YES YES 100x YES Page 5: (Cut out of the mad hatter's tea party with mask pictures glued over the characters' faces) Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...'No room! No room!' they cried out when they saw Alice coming. 'There's plenty of room!' said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table..." Page 6: All these years, Orrin had been SHUNNED by the Master of Wonderland as if there Was NO ROOM for him. But there was PLENTY of Room! In his new home, Orrin found people WONDROUS STRANGE, of a like he had never before encountered. They were the BEST and the BRIGHTEST and hid their BEAUTY behind a Marvellous Masquerade. They looked Askance at Orrin at first. But he soon Proved his worth with his Imagination and Invention. So they invited him to try the TREATS Page 7: Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...However, this bottle was not marked 'poison,' so Alice ventured to taste..." (Pictures of plasmid advertisements and Eve's Garden) Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice..." Page 8: Electro-Bolt and Sonic Boom, Telekinesis makes things Zoom! Target Dummy, Cyclone Trap! Unleash the ice of Winter Blast! Incinerate will make you warm as you release an Insect Swarm. Enrage a useless bloody fool and make an enemy your tool The possibilities are rife......... for VARIETY'S the SPLICE of LIFE Page 9: There are no Happy Endings in the Kingdom...... For WONDERLAND went to WAR! (Various pictures from Alice in Wonderland covered in blood splotches. Also a picture of Atlas holding up a globe.) (Arrow pointing at Atlas) Who He? Got the whole world on his shoulders! No Daddy No! not the Drill! The more things mutate..... the more they tend to CHANGE! Page 10: Orrin couldn't stay with his new friends...For they had all Gone Quite MAD (Picture of Alice looking at the Cheshire cat) Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat; 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' 'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. 'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'..." Page 11: Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice,..." And so... Orrin escaped from Wonderland only to be betrayed by EVERYONE! Let the FRENCH FRY! Let her seeing eye dogs be BLINDED and pity the seeker who seeks in VAIN Page 12: The secret, sweet Alice, Lies deep For the checkered Journey can be traversed only by a knight And none are left in this game but PAWNS of the Broken-hearted Prophet I have SPAWNED Not Quite "The End" Utropolis Manuscript inscribed his year of our lord nineteenhundredsixty OR in the modern chronology THE YEAR 15 A.R (Anno Raptus) One Ostracized Loner was delivered from the depths by the bursting of the BATHYSPHERE. He brought NAUGHT to show for his sojourn in Wonderland save some sorrowful souveneirs of that Civil SLAUGHTER. O, the BROKEN FACES - trophies of the FOES! (and mementoes of the FRIENDS......) FOOTSOLDIERS in that MYTHIC WAR to DECyDE THE FATE OF THE CITY 'NEATH THE SEA THE UTROPIAN METROPLOIS - Ch. 1 - by 'Quain' pg 5 I beheld the chiseled face - the face of Great ORION, cast in bronze. As some great astisian's hands had shaped the mold, a vacuum to be filled with molten metal - - so had ORION shaped my life. This man, who had been my employer, my partner, my nemesis - had taunted me with silence. By refusing me the invitaion to Paradise - he had goaded me to Greatness. I had gone a-hunting for a Snark - and had found my true self. "NO GOD OR KINGS." <--- OR KNIGTS?? as he would say. "ONLY MAN." I discovered what appeared to be a way down - an elevator mayhaps? I pulled the brass lever. It lurched - and down, down, down I went - plummeting into the mystery like Alice. Then it was as if the floor dropped out - suddenly my transport was whisking through water. This was no ordinary lift, thought I , but some bold new submersible! The splendour of the city unfolded before me - a vision of beauty, trimmed in neon. THE UTROPIAN METROPLOIS - Ch. 1 - by 'Quain' pg 8 My bathysphere traveled through rings with rings - a glidepath to my final destination. The hatch opened. I steeled myself - expecting to face a challenge - the sharpened lances of the Red Queen's knavish army. I was greeted by naught but silence! I found myself walking through the darkened corri- dors, strangely quiet - - littered with chaos. In the solft glow of the empty store-fronts, I noticed streamers on the ground and party favors. "Had some grand celebreation been interrupted in the midst?" I mused. Glass crunched beneath my feet; I bent down to discover the shattered stem of a discarded cham- pagne glass. "Late for the party," said I, reflect- ing upon the irony. I wondered where all the revelers had got to - even as I heard scuttling sounds in the distance; even as I felt unseen eyes watching me. The details remain - but there are fugues in the score. Like shards of the Looking Glass. I feel it is Urgent that I pin these vaporising truths to the foolscap pages - ere all of it slips from your humble narrator forever! THE UTOPIAN METROPOLIS - Ch. I - by 'Quain' pg 156 See letter from J.S. The one called Catherine helped me hobble into the flat that served as the headquarters of my new compatriots. The walls were lined with canvasses - eerie images glimpsed through the windowpanes of this strange city, light filtering past sculpted monstrosities whirled above the rooftops - the pigeons of this subaqueous Metropolis! I stared numbly at the paintings - barely feeling the blood dripping down my arm to the floor. The accursed Madmoiselle had wounded me in the fray. (A pox on all the French!) Noticing my wound, Catherine sat me on a stool to tend it. I found myself directly facing a portrait of the young girl, fragile and innocent. Every brushstroke spoke of loss. As she wrapped my wound with gauze, Catherine noticed my gaze, "Eve," she whispered. I dared not ask what had become of the child. THE UTOPIAN METROPOLIS - Ch. I - by 'Quain' pg 157 The door burst open. There stood the brusque man in the sailor's uniform, the White Knight who had saved me. We were lucky to have him at our side - a rare commodity, a soldier with experience in the War and training in the art of strategy. "Where have you been?" asked Catherine. "Sinclair Solutions," he grinned. "I think we've got a thing or two to turn this battle." ^ check on this The Knight eyed. "Pal," said he, "I don't even know where the hell you came from. But after the way you handled that wrench out there - you're jake in my book. We could use a mechanic." I protested that my profession was invention. He reached out his hand in comradeship. I accepted only to have him squeeze my grip and turn my arm to expose the veins. To my shock, he raised a syringe-like device, poising it in the air. "Don't worry," said he, "This will only sting for a second." Before I could flinch - the needle plunged. Category:Something in the Sea